Regina A. Barr ’87, MBA ’92

Alumni, Innovators and Entrepreneurs

Favorite Professors: “Sal Primeggia, who spent so much quality time with his students and really helped me gain confidence in myself, and Harvey Heinowitz, who made finance so interesting I ended up with a minor in it.”

Favorite Adelphi memories: ”Hanging out in the Rat with friends and cheering at basketball games.”

Advice for students: “I wasn’t able to take an unpaid internship while in college, I always had to work, but as a business executive I have supported intern programs and have hired former interns. Take advantage of the opportunity if you get it.”

Charting An Upward Path

In 2002, Regina Barr took a one-year hiatus from her successful banking career to work for a national nonprofit organization to implement a business development program and develop strategic alliances. She quickly learned that she could combine her personal discipline with her strength in building relationships and leveraging human resources to create her own business.

Shortly thereafter, she opened Red Ladder, a small consulting firm that specializes in executive coaching, strategic project management and motivational speaking. Ms. Barr’s expertise in these areas stems in part from a career shaped by several successive corporate mergers.

After graduating from Adelphi, she joined the Dreyfus Corporation in its broker-dealer customer service area. From their, she transitioned into the national marking department and later the product management division. After completing her M.B.A., also from Adelphi, she answered a New York Times ad for a position at Chase Manhattan Bank, and was chosen for the position out of more than 500 applicants.

In 1995, she left New York for Minnesota and continued working in the banking industry with Norwest Bank, Wells Fargo Bank, and U.S. Bank. She credits her inter-personal skills as the reason she survived numerous corporate restructures and mergers.

“At one point, I was managing eight people in seven different states,” she says. “If you remain positive, no matter the adversity, things will usually turn out well.”

Ms. Barr has not kept her expertise to herself and her business. She is the immediate past president of Financial Women International, an organization she joined 15 years ago, and serves as the managing editor of Today’s Financial Women. She is also supports Women Achieving New Direction and Mentium 100, organizations devoted to mentoring professional women in all business areas. In addition, Ms. Barr has been selected as one of the 2008 Top Women in Finance in Minnesota by Finance and Commerce newspaper.

“The opportunities for women to move up the corporate ladder are tremendous now that so many baby-boomers are retiring from C-level executive positions,” she says. “But, women have to have the right credentials to be taken seriously, and know how to market and promote themselves.”

When she’s not working, Ms. Barr enjoys outdoor activities and volunteering. In 2008 she has rededicated herself to her love of reading books. She has already read 28 this year, and is planning to write her first.